Wallkill's Hecht to lead BOCES

GOSHEN — William Hecht, superintendent of the Wallkill School District, has been named the next superintendent of the Orange-Ulster BOCES district.

BY NATHAN BROWN

GOSHEN — William Hecht, superintendent of the Wallkill School District, has been named the next superintendent of the Orange-Ulster BOCES district.

He is expected to be appointed at the BOCES board's May meeting, and will start in the job on Aug. 1, BOCES board President Carl Onken wrote in a letter Friday to members of the focus group that helped the board pick Hecht.

Onken wrote that Hecht has been Wallkill superintendent for four years, held administrative positions in the Wallkill, Onteora and Highland school districts before that, and also used to be a special education teacher.

Terry Olivo, the current chief operating officer of BOCES, said earlier this year that he plans to leave in June. BOCES started to look for a superintendent late last year, after receiving a letter from the state Education Commissioner John King Jr., reproving them for not having had one since Robert Hanna left in 2007.

Olivo was named chief operating officer in 2010. Because of the difference in title, the state's cap on BOCES superintendents' salaries, which is now at $166,762 a year, didn't apply to him; his salary is $238,030 for the 2012-2013 school year. Olivo told the Times Herald-Record in January that he had planned to leave this year anyway, regardless of King's letter.